The World of Shannara Read online

  BY TERRY BROOKS

  SHANNARA

  First King of Shannara

  The Sword of Shannara

  The Elfstones of Shannara

  The Wishsong of Shannara

  THE HERITAGE OF SHANNARA

  The Scions of Shannara

  The Druid of Shannara

  The Elf Queen of Shannara

  The Talismans of Shannara

  THE VOYAGE OF THE JERLE SHANNARA

  Ilse Witch

  Antrax

  Morgawr

  HIGH DRUID OF SHANNARA

  Jarka Ruus

  Tanequil

  Straken

  GENESIS OF SHANNARA

  Armageddon’s Children

  The Elves of Cintra

  The Gypsy Morph

  The World of Shannara

  THE MAGIC KINGDOM OF LANDOVER

  Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold!

  The Black Unicorn

  Wizard at Large

  The Tangle Box

  Witches’ Brew

  THE WORD AND THE VOID

  Running with the Demon

  A Knight of the Word

  Angel Fire East

  Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life

  Terry Brooks’s Shannara series is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2001, 2009 by Bill Fawcett and Associates

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  The first edition of this work was published by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2001.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-77831-4

  www.delreybooks.com

  v3.1

  To my children, Kira Shands and Kasi Cherry,

  whose love is the magic in my life.

  —David Cherry

  To Terry Brooks, for taking me there in the

  first place, and to David Cherry, for timely

  introductions and advice.

  —Rob Alexander

  Contents

  Cover

  Also Translated by Terry Brooks

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  FOREWORD BY TERRY BROOKS

  INTRODUCTION: THE LOST LEGACY

  DESCENT INTO DARKNESS:

  THE OLD WORLD AND THE GREAT WARS

  PARANOR: THE DRUID’S KEEP

  WITHIN THE WALLS: A TOUR OF PARANOR

  THE DRUIDS: LEGACY OF MYSTERY

  BREMEN: FIRST MYSTIC DRUID

  ALLANON: PROTECTOR OF THE FOUR LANDS

  WALKER BOH: DARK UNCLE

  COGLINE: THE LAPSED DRUID

  REALMS OF THE DEAD

  THE HADESHORN

  HALL OF KINGS

  THE SOUTHLAND: HISTORY OF THE FEDERATION

  HISTORY OF THE SOUTHLAND

  THE SOUTHLAND: CITIES OF THE SOUTHLAND

  ARISHAIG

  WAYFORD AND STERN

  DECHTERA

  HIGHLANDS OF LEAH

  THE CITY OF LEAH

  BEYOND THE HIGHLANDS

  SHADY VALE

  TWO FAMILIES: A LEGACY OF COURAGE

  THE OHMSFORDS

  THE LEAHS

  THE BORDERLANDS: CROSSROADS OF THE FOUR LANDS

  THE BORDER LEGION OF CALLAHORN

  THE BORDERLANDS: FORTRESSES OF TRADE

  TYRSIS

  VARFLEET

  KERN

  BEYOND THE CITIES

  THE NORTHLAND: LAND OF TROLLS AND WARLOCKS

  THE SKULL KINGDOM

  TROLLS

  URDAS

  THE EASTLAND: LAND OF DWARVES AND GNOMES

  DWARVES

  LAND OF THE DWARVES

  GNOMES

  MWELLRETS

  THE WESTLAND: LAND OF THE ELVES

  HISTORY OF THE ELVES

  ARBORLON

  THE FORTRESS OF THE CHEW MAGNA

  THE MATTED BRAKES

  THE WESTLAND: GUARDIANS OF THE AIR

  SKY ELVES

  ROVERS

  MARCH BRUME

  AIRSHIPS

  THE WILDERUN

  THE LANDS BEYOND

  FLAY CREECH

  SHATTERSTONE

  SHRIKE ISLAND

  MEPHITIC

  ICE HENGE

  MORROWINDL

  A LEGACY OF MAGIC, DARKNESS, AND LIGHT

  THE KING OF THE SILVER RIVER

  THE STONE KING

  MAW GRINT

  QUICKENING

  MORAG AND MALLENROH

  THE MORGAWR

  THE DAGDA MOR

  THE CHANGELING

  THE REAPER

  PARKASIÍA: VOYAGE TO A NEW WORLD

  CASTLEDOWN

  LAND OF THE RINDGE

  THE ALEUTHRA ARK MOUNTAIN RANGE

  THE DRUIDS OF THE NEW ORDER

  THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD DRUID ORDER

  SHADEA A’RU AND THE RENEGADE DRUIDS OF THE THIRD DRUID COUNCIL

  CHANGING LIFE IN THE FOUR LANDS

  THE FEDERATION-FREE-BORN WAR

  THE EXPANDING FRONTIER

  STRIDEGATE

  THE LAND OF THE FORBIDDING

  THE JARKA RUUS

  CREATURES OF THE DARK WORLD

  REDISCOVERING THE OLD WORLD

  THE SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION

  DEMONS OF THE VOID

  KNIGHTS OF THE WORD

  NEST FREEMARK

  THE FALL OF THE OLD WORLD

  FREAKS AND MUTANTS

  THE ONCE-MEN

  THE ELVES

  About the Authors

  About the Artists

  Foreword

  even years ago, in response to repeated reader requests, Del Rey Books decided to compile and publish a companion book to the Shannara series. This volume would explore in detail the history of the world, provide detailed character studies with accompanying drawings, and offer in-depth examinations of creatures, places, talismans, and the like. It was a project that had been discussed many times over the years, but which had always been placed on the back burner. Finally, it was decided that it should go forward.

  There were good reasons for this to happen, not the least of which was the aforementioned level of reader interest. The thing about writing fantasy is that creating imaginary worlds and characters fuels an interest in readers for more details, more explanation, and just plain more. While it would be a good thing if I could give them all this, the reality is that it takes all the energy I can muster just to do a book a year or maybe two once in a blue moon. Trying to fill in all those gaps between books or even to expand on the existing story arc tires me out just thinking about it. A companion book, I knew, might go a long way toward resolving the problem.

  Besides, I believe that writers should listen to their readers. If readers want something badly enough, a writer has to consider giving it to them. I couldn’t do that easily with the material that made up the primary stories because the ideas for those stories were generated and fueled by the things that interested me at the time. Once those times are gone by, it is hard to recapture them. But someone else could manage it, if there was someone out there with sufficient interest in and talent for doing so. Someone else could provide readers with the maps, drawings, prehistories, and all the rest that they were so anxious to have.

  Couldn’t they? Please?

  Shelly Shapiro, Del Re
y’s editorial director, stepped in to spearhead the project from the publishing end. Shelly and I had worked together at Del Rey for the better part of twenty-five years, and I could trust her to do the job in a way that would satisfy everyone. Like myself, she grew up in the company under the whiplash—oops, excuse me, guidance—of Lester and Judy-Lynn del Rey. I was more than pleased to have her acting as editor for the project.

  Bill Fawcett was chosen to be the book packager. I know, his job title sounds like something out of Hollywood, but what he does is find the right writer and the artist for the book and then act as liaison with the publisher and myself. He must also shepherd the project along so that it doesn’t stall out or miss its deadlines. Bill has served in this capacity before, notably with companion volumes for Anne McCaffrey’s Pern and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Bill is a sharp guy, and he knows what he is doing.

  Teresa Patterson agreed to do the writing and David Cherry, the art. I hadn’t met either before, but I knew of their work. Together with Bill, they made a pilgrimage to my Seattle home to spend a few days picking my brain about the world of Shannara. Because I possess a small and shallow brain, I wasn’t much help. They would ask me questions about characters, places, creatures, and events, hoping for additional insights and direction. I would reply to these questions mostly with something along the line of, “What do you think?” I was telling them that this was going to be their baby, and I was counting on their creativity to carry the day.

  To their credit, they didn’t throw up their hands and decamp. I know now that they appreciated the artistic freedom. I was pretty sure Teresa and David knew the books better than I did—the same way all my readers seem to know them—so it seemed foolish not to let them use that knowledge. I’ve always believed that once I finish a book and turn it in for publication, it no longer belongs to me; it belongs to the readers. Teresa and David were smart and creative enough to figure out what was needed. The best thing I could do was to stay out of the way.

  Now, these seven years later, we are offering an updated version with fresh material and a fresh perspective. In that time, I have written six new sequels to the original series and three books in a prequel that chronicles the events surrounding the Great Wars that ended the Old World and gave rise to what would become the new world of Shannara.

  With Shelly busy on other projects, Betsy Mitchell has stepped in as editor, but Bill, Teresa, and David are back. As well, we have the very able and talented assistance of artist Rob Alexander to add to the mix. Every part of this new, expanded edition is infused with elements of their hard work and creative effort. As I said the last time out, whatever you like about this book, you can thank them for providing. I cannot imagine anyone doing it better.

  All the best,

  TERRY BROOKS

  February 2008

  Introduction: The Lost Legacy

  ince the near annihilation of the world during the Great Wars, a fragmented humanity has endured more than three thousand years of struggle in the attempt to rebuild civilization. The world today is far different from the Old World. It is a place where magic has been reborn, where legend and reality often merge, and where the balance between good and evil is dangerously precarious.

  The Druids were formed to protect that balance and assist our crawl out of barbarism. They collected lost knowledge to protect it for future generations. In most cases, however, that information has been jealously guarded and dispersed to only a select few. Up until now, the diverse people of the Four Lands have known little about each other, and less of the history and complexity of the world at large.

  In an attempt to redress that, I have opened a portion of the Druid Histories to the authors, that they might create the first comprehensive work of information for the common man. All the Races deserve to know their history and that of their neighbors. All the Races must know of the world if we are to have a chance to unite against the constantly growing threat of evil. The Druid credo is “Through knowledge, power.” In this case, it may well be the power to prevent our world from sliding into darkness.

  —WALKER BOH, HIGH DRUID OF PARANOR

  Descent into Darkness:

  The Old World and

  the Great Wars

  While Man worked all those years to discover the secrets of life, he never managed to escape his overpowering fascination with death. —Allanon, Druid

  magine a world of machines, filled with glass and metal buildings reaching for the sky. A world in which there was only one known Race—that of Man. His cities covered most of the face of the earth; his dominion reached beyond the world into the great void of space. This was the world before the Great Wars. Man ruled the earth with machines that he had built from science of a level that is unimaginable today. He had used those machines to probe and explore everything from the outer reaches of the sky to the inner reaches of the sea floor. He could travel across the width and breadth of the world in only hours, using machines to transport him faster than any airship can fly.

  The people of the Old World knew nothing of magic. They did not need it. Theirs was the magic created of their technologies, magic they knew and could document to the innermost levels of creation. Every child was trained to understand the basic rules of science; every child knew how to use machines. There appeared to be no problem or challenge that could not be conquered using science and a little hard work. Their discoveries enabled them to conquer disease and repair impossibly damaging injuries. They all but eradicated the normal process of aging, slowing it so that the average person lived 100 to 150 years or more. They were close to conquering death itself and might have eventually done so in a few more years if their civilization had survived.

  Eldwist

  Far to the north where the Eastland ends, a tiny isthmus connects the land to a peninsula jutting into the Tiderace. On that peninsula stands a huge stone dome, the last remnant of an Old World city known as Eldwist. Before the age of the Federation and the coming of the Shadowen, Eldwist loomed above the waves of the Tiderace. For centuries, its towers and walkways were almost perfectly preserved in stone by a creature of Faerie, a last reminder of the shape and scope of Old World architecture. Those few hardy souls who dared journey to the Tiderace were greeted by buildings built so tall they seemed to threaten the sky. They stood in row upon row, like towering soldiers above a gridwork of perfectly straight streets. Tunnels built for underground carriages burrowed beneath the impossibly tall buildings. Huge open squares were filled with statuary and fountains frozen in stone.

  The city was destroyed almost eighty years ago; the land was reclaimed by nature. All that remains is the fossilized dome that once stood at its center, the lone monument to all the thousands of souls who once lived, worked, and died there.

  Eldwist, ruins of a city dating from the Old World before the Great Wars.

  Unfortunately, Man’s fascination with the science of life was equaled by his involvement with that of destruction and death. Science itself is neither good nor bad and can be used for either purpose, but Man’s need to be all-powerful, to control all aspects of giving and ending life, proved to be his undoing. Weapons of unimaginable potency were created, thousands of weapons that could wipe out a city—or a world—with a single push of a button. The people of that time swore that such weapons were created only to prevent conflict and were never intended for use—but they were built nonetheless. The “enemy” might make deployment necessary.

  For despite the fact that Man was the only known Race, he still managed to find differences between himself and his brothers and sisters—differences of the coloration of their skin, of the location of their homeland, of the nature of their politics—and Man distrusted anything that was different.

  Conflicts were common during this time, though they were usually confined to small areas and affected only small groups of people. But these conflicts began to occur more often, growing in number and severity. The limited disputes ignited, inflaming basic hatreds. Disputes esca
lated into battles and began to spread and grow, becoming wars. Inexorably more and more countries were pulled into these wars. Like a fire started from a few embers in dry grass, it began to consume the world. Then one afternoon the flames reached flash point, and the doomsday weapons—never intended to be used—were unleashed on the world in a series of massive retaliatory strikes. Explosive devices of unimaginable power wiped out entire regions in great firestorms. Deadly engineered plagues killed the populations of entire cities, rotting them from the inside. All the advances of the science of killing were unleashed on the world. The last battle of the Great Wars lasted only a few moments, but the results were the eradication of thousands of years of advanced civilization and the extermination of most of the life on the planet.

  Creepers

  The creatures known as creepers were originally created by Old World technology. A weapon of war that survived the holocaust, they were originally designed as armored carriages to carry men who controlled them and used them as protective armor as well as offensive weapons. Later versions no longer needed human contact to operate and could function while being directed from a distance. The final version, probably used in the Great Wars, was completely autonomous, able to carry out commands and complete missions of destruction with no human intervention at all. These machines were made in a wide variety of designs, large and small, and could travel over any surface, surmount almost any obstacle. Many of them contained weapons with awesome firepower and were made of materials impervious to most types of attack. Some of these original machines are believed to have survived the Great Wars and may still be in working order in remote parts of the world.

  A creeper, used as a weapon in the Great Wars.

  As if the destructive vehemence of the weapons was not enough, the massive energy released during the final exchange triggered a cataclysm within the earth. The planet violently rebelled against such abuse and reacted with earthquakes and volcanoes, writhing as the pressures reshaped large areas of her surface. Mountain ranges fell and sea floors rose. Floods smashed down upon the coasts as glaciers melted, and cities sank into the sea. Infernos raged in the forests. The sky was black in mourning from the smoke and ash as the world cried out her pain.